Winner of both the New Zealand Society of Authors Best First Book Award & the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards
Wulf, Hamish Clayton's inventive, brilliant novel, explores a subject little covered in New Zealand fiction, and marks the emergence of a startlingly assured, exciting new voice.
1830s New Zealand: The great chief Te Rauparaha has conquered tiny Kapiti Island, from where his tribe of Ngati Toa launches brutal attacks on its southern enemies. Off the coast of Kapiti, an English ship arrives seeking to trade with the Maori, setting off a train of events that forever changes the course of New Zealand history.
From the very beginning, Wulf will grab you with its visual imagery. Narrated by an English sailor and conjuring up a land of power, secrets, and strangeness, this book will make you feel as if you too are trekking through dense native bush, wandering on a desolate sandy beach, and standing on a ship offshore of New Zealand knowing you are being watched by the fearsome locals.
“A powerfully imagined novel—assured, crisply poetic, and spellbinding in its unfurling narrative. . . . Clayton [is] a gifted writer for a new generation.” —NZ Books
“…the writing is so full of colour and richness that it is almost as if it is all taking place in some sort of enchanted wonderland.” —Booksellers New Zealand
(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)
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